Phoenix Time
by Authourinthemaking
Summary: All A.J. wants is to be like his dad. The only trouble is, his dad died when he was a baby. So, with his dad's prized possession in his pocket, and the time travel device the Phoenix Foundation develops, he goes back in time to try to save his dad. (Rated T just to be safe because the TV show is TV-14, but the worst so far is a character saying someone gets killed.)


**Authour's note:** This is just the beginning of an idea I had. It's a bit sloppy and needs some editing, but I just wanted to put it out there and see if others thought it was a good idea. I kind of got the idea from Season 5 of _The Flash_. Only, no one has any superpowers and my main character is not like Nora.

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 **A. J. Cage  
**

Matty, Jack, Riley, Bozer, and MacGyver walked into the Phoenix Foundation war room. There, sitting in one of the chairs, bending a paperclip into a shape, was a young man with blonde hair and hazel eyes. "Whoa, you never told me you had a brother," Jack commented.

"I don't," Mac answered. Jack was right, though. The man looked frighteningly like MacGyver.

"You should really work on your security here," the young man commented, not looking up from his paperclip creation. "I was able to get in just by walking in the front door and saying I was an old friend of MacGyver's."

"Who are you?" Matty demanded.

At this, the young man paused and looked up. He smiled. "My name is A.J. Cage and I'm from the year 2034."

"Cage? Do you know a Samantha Cage?" Mac inquired.

"Yeah, she's my mum," A.J. answered.

"That would explain the accent," Riley commented. Mac nodded and approached A.J.

"How do we know we can trust you?" he asked.

A.J. reached in his pocket and pulled out a small, folder piece of paper. "My mum told me to give you this to prove she sent me, and she made me promise not to read it. So, I have no idea what is says.

Mac frowned and took the note. He unfolded it. One word was on the page. _Drowning_. Mac smiled and then tore up the note. "What'd you do that for?" Jack protested. Mac turned toward the others. "Because we don't need it. He's telling the truth," Mac announced.

"What was on that note that convinced you so thoroughly?" Jack queried.

"It was just one word," Mac answered.

"One word!?" Bozer interjected. "How can one word explain everything?"

"Because it was something that only I know about Cage," Mac answered coolly.

There was a pause, and everyone stared at Mac. "Is there something you're not telling us, man?" Jack inquired.

"It was her worst fear, Jack," Mac responded. "She told it to me one day."

"Aha," Jack replied, not completely convinced.

Picking up on the hesitation in his voice, Mac pleaded, "Let's at least hear him out as to why he's here." Everyone agreed to this.

A.J. smiled and began. "Well, in a few months for you, you'll get a lead on Murdoc. Now, this will seem great, but it will be a huge trap, as usual with the psychopath. Only this time, he will succeed. No MacGyvering your way out of this one."

He paused and looked at Mac. "Jack eventually does put a bullet in the psychopath's head, but not before three more years of searching and heartache. Toward the end of the pursuit, they call in my mum to come help. She agrees and brings me with her. I am only two years old at the time. She stays on the team even after Murdoc is caught.

"As I grow up, she notices that I'm a lot like my dad, whom I never met, so she takes me to Phoenix Foundation. Matty sees my skills, too, and gives me a special gift. Then, I get recruited as a junior agent. I'm not allowed to go on missions, but I am allowed to radio in when help is needed. I'm good, but I'm not him.

"I'm going to go to MIT when in the fall, but it still won't be enough. So, when I was ten, the Phoenix Foundation decided to figure out a way to travel through time. They recruited all the best minds they possibly could. It took them seven years, but they finally developed the Time Vortex Manipulator."

He paused and pointed to the watch on his hand. "Time Vortex Manipulator? As in the thing that Jack Harkness wears in _Doctor_ _Who_?" Bozer quizzed.

"Yeah," A.J. smiled. "And you're the one who named it that."

"Me?" Bozer queried.

"Yes. You were one of the chief researchers for the project," A.J. replied.

"Huh," Bozer smiled. "What do you know? I'm going to help develop time travel."

A.J. smiled weakly. "Well, maybe not. Because if I'm successful, the Phoenix Foundation will never invent time travel because they won't need to."

"What do you mean?" Mac questioned.

"I came here to save someone. And if I successfully save that person, they won't invent time travel so that I can go back and save him because he will be alive," A.J. explained. Mac nodded. It was a little above even his head, but he got the gist of it.

A.J. then moved to the table and picked up the Swiss army knife that was laying on it. He was about to pocket it, when Mac asked where he got it. A.J. smiled. "Oh, this was the special gift Matty gave me," he replied. "It was my dad's, and it was pretty much his favorite thing. He was rarely without it."

The team looked at each other. "Wait, a minute," Riley interjected. "Are you saying that in a few months, we're going to get a lead on Murdoc, and he's going to kill Mac, and then 17 years later, the Phoenix Foundation is going to develop time travel so that a guy claiming to be Mac's son, can go back in time and save his life?"

"Pretty much," A.J. returned.

"How is that even possible?" Bozer questioned.

"Yeah. You claimed Cage was your mother?" Jack added.

Mac sighed. "Actually, it is possible," he put in.

"What!?" Jack exclaimed, turning to his best friend. Everyone looked at him expectantly.

"Remember when the nurse came out after Cage had been shot?" Mac quizzed.

"Yeah, she said Cage said to tell you sorry for ruining your Christmas party," Riley answered. Mac nodded.

"Right. But do you remember what else she said?" he asked.

"Something about a baby," Bozer recalled.

"Exactly," Mac replied. "When I went to see Cage, I learned the baby was mine. She told me she was going to live with her sister, and she made me promise not to tell anyone about the baby. I promised."

"So, that would explain all those texts you got for months after that made your brain go all mushy inside. I could tell by you smile," Jack said.

Mac nodded, and replied, "Yeah. A.J. is the son of me and Cage. I'm guessing he took his mother's name so no one would know he was mine."

"She kinda forced me to," A.J. said. "I would've liked to have had a name like MacGyver, especially after I learned who you were and all the cool things you did. That's why I want to go to MIT. I want to be like you." Mac smiled and put his arm around the boy.

"Well, let's make sure that you can not only go to MIT, but that I can train you for the field," he said. A.J. nodded, grinning hugely.

"By the way," Jack mused, "what does A.J. stand for?"

"Angus Jack," A.J. replied. "Mum said you guys were the closest thing she ever had to family, so she named me after the two people she worked with the most."

Jack beamed. "Somebody's named after me," he crowed. "Somebody's named after me." Everyone chuckled. Then, Matty drew their attention to the potential Murdoc lead they were predicted to get in a few days.

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 **Authour's Note:** Please let me know what you think, and if I should continue this story. Mac/Riley is my otp, but I like Mac/Cage, too. I think they make a cute couple.


End file.
